Torchwood :: Death Becomes All
by MekQuarrie
Summary: Tosh relies on her friends to look after her when she catches something strange, but - lost and afraid - she finds common cause in a very strange place. :: 'Skull' image reworked from Wikimedia commons.
1. Chapter 1

Toshiko lay quietly in the hospital bed. Jack and Ianto stood beside her. One of them had arranged for some very effective analgesia and she was feeling very pleased with herself, and with life in general.

"Get well soon," Jack winked as he leaned over her. Captain Jack Harkness had a wicked sense of humor and was gleefully wearing a white doctor's coat and a stethoscope. Ianto had refused to 'play dress-up' and was wearing his usual vest and a light-colored leather jacket.

"Did my flu get worse?" she whispered. She had felt tired and sore for several weeks now. The past day was almost a forgettable blur.

"Yes. I think it was that box from the space debris. Something inside must have infected you." Jack looked at the beeping monitors beside the bed. Her temperature and blood pressure appeared high. "I'm sorry. I should have tested it more. I only wanted the photographic plates. It made me lax."

Tosh wanted to reach up and touch his face, to reassure him. But she could not move her limbs.

"That's alright," she replied quietly. "I did some tests on the box too. All the tests we could do. No-one could have known. But you're both okay?"

They both nodded and mumbled agreement.

"I've arranged for a U*N*I*T doctor to look after you," said Jack. "This whole room is for your convenience."

"I even fixed up a masking device on the door," interjected Ianto. "It's like a stealth ward. No-one will know you're here. Except for us, of course."

"Don't you think Owen would have been a better choice than a military doctor?" Tosh whispered. "He has had proper training after all."

"I know," said Jack quietly. "But he's a little busy right now. We need to give him some space." Jack could be very reassuring when he wanted to.

"Moping down by the marina, probably," sniffed Ianto. Jack threw him a disapproving look.

"And Gwen? Is she alright too?" Tosh's eyelids were feeling heavy, but the sparkling stars around the edge of her vision were entertaining her.

"Gwen is fine," said Ianto. "Rhys mentioned something on the phone about 'decorating'. It didn't sound pretty."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yeah. The Coopers love to decorate. Rain, shine or space flu."

Ianto frowned at Jack. "You know Rhys doesn't like being called 'Mr. Cooper'. It makes him feel awkward."

Jack laughed and slapped Ianto on the chest. "I promise not to call him that to his face. Why don't we find a coffee somewhere? I'm sure Tosh needs her rest."

Tosh could see Ianto licking his lips nervously. Maybe he was still a little unsure of Jack's easy personality. Maybe he liked the attention. She nodded slowly and waved her hand heavily. "Yes. Go. Bring back snacks. But later."

"Your doctor will be in shortly. You'll know him. He'll be the only person that can get thru this door," said Ianto. He opened the otherwise ordinary door and rocked it backward and forward to prove its very ordinary capabilities.

"Don't wear it out," said Jack pushing Ianto out into the corridor. The door swung shut smoothly.

**:::**

Lt. Alain McGill (MBBS) had been a poor student and a poor doctor, but he had eventually found a niche in the regular Army and then latterly within the crazy hierarchy of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce.

His drive from Salisbury had been uneventful, but his navigation around Cardiff was useless and he arrived an hour late at the University Hospital thanks only to the advice of bemused mini-cab drivers.

"What's that for?" asked the security guard at the entrance to the private car park.

"It's my security pass. Don't you need it?" he replied, balancing a paper cup of coffee on the steering wheel.

"No point, sir. Anyone can walk in one of the side doors. It's a public place after all. If you intend to go somewhere like maternity or nuclear physics, you can show your pass to them." The guard tapped the brim of his cap.

After several further minutes trying to find a parking space, McGill was eventually able to park and enter on foot by one of the ornate side doors. With the help of passing staff, he found the basement and the special detention wards where the police and other agencies could have persons of great interest treated discreetly and securely.

"Can I see your credentials, please?" asked the nurse behind the reception desk. She keyed in his details and returned the card. "Room four-fifty," she smiled.

Halfway down a further, more gloomy corridor, tiled in late Victorian green, McGill stood at door 451. He then looked back to door 449. Although Jones had informed him of the deception, it was still remarkable. "Ingenious," he said aloud. The tiles continued seamlessly from one door to the next.

"Good afternoon, Miss Sato," he said as he entered the room. "Assuming that's your real name," he added.

Tosh looked up hazily. Ianto had never been good at cover stories, but she did not have to admit to anything. "We can but hope," she burbled. "Have you brought the stars?" she mumbled.

He raised his eyebrows and picked up the chart from the end of the bed. "My bag of sweet treats is back in the car. I'm not sure I've got what you want anyway. Are your friends still here?"

Tosh blinked and turned her head slightly. The pain was returning to her neck. "I thought they were still standing there. They might have been gone a minute. Or an hour. I don't really know."

McGill looked at her eyes and returned the chart. The pupils were still opening and closing randomly. In a non-medical situation, he might have thought of it as beautiful.

"Why don't you try some normal sleep, and we'll look at the analgesia in about an hour?" he asked with a smile.

Before she could answer there was a commotion in the corridor. McGill walked to the door raising a reassuring hand. "A little quiet," he whispered.

Even though he knew from his own observation that the door was invisible, McGill paused before parting two of the horizontal blinds to look thru the wired glass. Then he gasped in surprise.


	2. Chapter 2

A succession of crouching figures was walking quietly past the door as McGill looked out. They wore white jackets like doctors but had big hunched shoulders like gorillas. Their heads were hard to see in the gloom. It looked as if their heads were covered with white scarves.

"Stay quiet," he repeated to Tosh. She had sat up in bed and was blinking.

"Why should I be quiet? Someone is singing in my head." She closed her eyes dreamily. "It's Caruso. Listen..."

The line of figures extended from the reception desk off to the far end of the corridor. He had not explored that far so had no idea what was down there or how far it extended.

"Are you singing 'La Bohème'?" she demanded. "No? Then it must be your friend Enrico."

McGill stepped lightly back to the bed. "You must be quiet, Miss Sato. I'm not sure what's going on here. This is supposed to be a safe wing. But I don't like the look of this. Why so many in such a small place?"

"Maybe they've come for me, Doctor Doctor Man," she giggled. "I have a lot of fans. My job is very important and lots of people want my autograph." She tried to pull back the top of the sheet around her waist, but her hands were feeble.

"I doubt that very much, Miss Sato. I've seen some weird things with U*N*I*T, and these people fit into that 'weird' template."

"Oh," she chuckled letting her head fall sideways. "Weird in what way? Has a pterodactyl eaten one of your friends? Or your house disappeared into a pool of lava?" She looked stupid but smug. "And that Harriet Jones ate my salad once. That hurt."

McGill placed his flat hand close to her mouth trying to persuade her to be quiet. "Ssh. We can share tall tales over marshmallows, Miss Sato," he whispered. "I have a particularly amusing tale of the Roman Baths in the city of Bath. I'll tell you it if you can keep quiet for the next few minutes."

Tosh giggled again. "Ha. What happened? Did you break a fingernail? My friend Jack has a story about the actual Romans in the Roman Baths in the city of Bath." She thought briefly. "I might not tell you. It's a bit rude."

McGill sighed and walked back to the door. He was sure that the stealth door would hold, but he did not want to invite attention. Ianto's e-mail had said that the door was tuned to the biometric data in his U*N*I*T pass and would only open for a small list of people. But the walls of the other rooms might be a different story, particularly if the stealth tech had been installed in a hurry.

The bodies in the crowd had moved, but more figures had appeared, quietly filling the corridor. This time, McGill could see that the head covering was more than a scarf, it was more like a whole-head pillowcase.

"Golly," he hissed. "That's some kind of Klan fetish they've got going on there."

"Are you a Scotsman, Doctor Doctor Man? I don't have great experience of Scotsmen," queried Tosh.

McGill turned back to her. "Please be quiet, Miss Sato. My name is Doctor McGill. I suppose we're Irish. But more pleasantries later."

He turned back to the window. And gasped. One of the covered heads was turned to face the camouflaged window. Instead of two eye-holes there was only a single cyclopean hole in the center of the face, circled by bold red concentric circles. He could see only darkness within the hole in the hood.

"I think they heard us," he hissed. "Stay back from the door."

He turned back to the glass of the window. The first hooded face was joined by another, and then another, all staring at what must have been a blank wall, but fixed on the point where he was standing. All the hoods contained a central outlined eye-hole.

"If they break in, Miss Sato," he whispered. "There is nowhere to run to. Perhaps if you stay still, they might overlook you."

The faces all crowded tighter around the window. There was no knowing how many were outside now. The corridor might be full.

McGill was drawn to the central eye and its darkness within. Gloved fingers intruded from around the head and poked and prodded at the red circles and finally tore the fabric around the eye. Within was a glimpse of a tiny flame.

McGill screamed in agony.

:::

"Still shielded," noted Ianto as he pushed open the door. He wiped a few cookie crumbs from his lips and straightened his shirt around his necktie.

"Was that locked?" asked Jack. "Better check. We wouldn't want anyone accidentally stumbling in here." He was still smiling.

They both stood still as the door slammed shut. Black handprints were scuffed along the enameled floor leading to the solitary bed.

"Tosh!" shouted Ianto reaching forward.

They could see their friend slumped oddly under the sheets. But on top of her was a crumpled figure and blood distributed from hands to eyes and everywhere else.

There was a crackle of electric power and a gust of heat. The bed shimmered and disappeared along with the two people on it.

"Shit!" shouted Ianto. "Did they teleport? What was going on?" He slapped his left hand on his forehead.

"No, you idiot, Ianto," Jack replied. He was shaking his head. "Didn't you see? It was your genius stealth shield. They used it to hide themselves."

"They? Why would Tosh try to hide? It's us." He stepped toward the empty space. The bloody handprints neatly stopped a short distance from where the bed had been. "Are they still there?" he speculated.

Jack walked up beside him. "It looks like an improvement on your design. Instead of pretending to be a wall... Well, it pretends not to be anything."

Ianto felt carefully along the wall in front of him, but it was weird. The wall felt flat and straight, but what he saw did not quite match with what he could feel. "We're almost a yard away from the wall, Jack but I can feel the tiles with my hand."

Jack paced back to the door and the quietness of the corridor. "No-one out here. And no-one in here. What are they running from?"


	3. Chapter 3

"But I want a cuddle." Tosh was sulking with the blanket gathered around her shoulders. "Jack!" she shouted again, then giggled. "Why can't they hear me, Doctor Irish Man? I want my friends beside me."

McGill twitched on the bed on top of her, fiercely gripping his face around his eyes. He twitched and started to talk. "You helped me, Miss Sato. You came up with the idea of stealing the stealth field when the door was opened."

Tosh blinked and started to feel her head clear. "I don't remember. Why can we see them? I don't think they can see us."

"We're still inside the field. Ianto designed it as a one-way protection." McGill kept breathing heavily.

Tosh blinked again. There were painful black spots around the edge of her vision. She stroked McGill's head. "Are you okay?" she asked clenching and unclenching her hand.

"I'm fine," he lied. "Are you feeling better?" He tilted his head up, but did not face her directly.

Tosh coughed softly and wiped her nose. "Still hot. My nose is starting to run again. I think I still have that horrible space flu." She felt the temperature of her forehead with the palm of her left hand. "Oh. The headache is coming back."

"You'll be fine," he lied again. He edged to the side of the bed and felt the pressure of the shield pushing his elbow.

"I'm cold now," noted Tosh. A note of childishness was creeping in to her voice. Her forearms were shivering.

"We need to get your medication. If they close the door, the shield will jump back to the main wall."

"I'll be f-f-fine," Tosh sighed. She lay back on the pillows controlling her breathing. "I'll be fine. I'm more worried about you." She grasped at a name from a clearer memory. "McGill?"

"Yes, Miss Sato. Call me Dr. McGill." He laughed thru short breathes.

"You could call me Tosh. It's Toshiko really. But I like 'Miss Sato'. It makes me feel important." She sniffed. A heavy pressure was pounding the bones over her cheeks and under her eyes. "Why are your eyes bleeding, Dr. McGill?"

"Those people outside. Something was inside their hoods. Not just eyes. An energy or a power. Superhuman. Inhuman." He could barely talk above a whisper.

Tosh twitched where she lay. "Were they pursuing me?" she giggled. "Did they want my body? Did they want to drain all my blood?"

McGill laughed painfully. "I don't even think they knew you were here. We just caught their attention."

"They won't come back, will they?" she asked. "I feel scared now."

"Your friends seemed to get in without any trouble," McGill noted. "Don't be afraid."

**:::**

"So the room is currently unshielded," explained Ianto.

"And the door is open," Jack pointed out. "So your security's already less than perfect."

Ianto was thinking aloud. "We could just leave the room. Close the door, I mean, and hope they let the stealth field spring back again?" He tapped a finger to the corner of his mouth.

Jack sighed. "What if it's just you that leaves? I'll stay in here and reassure them once you've gone."

"No need to be touchy," Ianto replied. Jack seemed bored by the whole exercise. The bloody handprints on the floor seemed to have no effect on him. "If you want to leave, go home I mean, I'm not holding you back."

Some of Jack's sparkle seemed to return briefly. "Why don't we both leave?"

"I'm not sure about that. That cuts us off from them again. Which is fine if they're playing silly beggars. But what if the bloody handprints on the Victorian tiles are a measure of something more serious?" Ianto hated it when he had to be sarcastic.

"Tosh will find a way to communicate with us. Your pal McGill must have some intelligence too. We could leave a note." Jack cast his eyes around to look for a piece of paper.

"If we stand outside we won't be able to see them. That's how it works." Ianto always carried a long list in his mind of all the unsolvable problems that he had never solved. It was a burden that was getting to be a little heavier as the day progressed.

Jack wrinkled his lips and slapped his left hand on Ianto's shoulder. "Let's not just stand looking in the window then. Why don't we just leave and go find a quiet place to chill out?"

"I'm leaving a note," said Ianto. He left his cellphone on a side table by the sink along with a slip of paper with the words 'CALL JACK' neatly scripted on it. "We can sort things out better over the phone."

They both stepped out into the empty corridor. "What are you waiting for?" asked Jack looking up and down. "Noone is watching."

"I know. Don't rush me. "Ianto pulled the old fashioned door closed and let the visual camouflage of the tiles swirl around his hand and finally hide everything from sight.

"I can still feel the lock," he said, rubbing his fingers on the wall.

Jack shrugged. "I get it. As safe as before. Now we can find out what's happening." He pulled his cellphone from his trench-coat pocket and held it up dramatically. It did not ring. "So. I'm still up for coffee," he offered.

"You could wait a bit longer than three seconds" Ianto sighed. "There could be all sorts of reasons for them not to call straight away."

Jack shrugged. "Well that must be six seconds now. I'll send them a text message too. See? 'Call me now. I'm worried.' And a sad face at the end. We can't do much more." He returned the phone to his pocket.

"I should have stayed in the room," muttered Ianto. "That would have made more sense."

Jack raised his eyebrows and was about to reply when the phone rang.

Ianto sighed. "At last." He gestured for Jack to pass him the phone. "Tosh? Alain?"

A small voice at the end finally spoke "_Kon'nichiwa_," she said.


End file.
